


All the Things We Could've Been

by BitterSilence



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: 5x13, Coda, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-20
Updated: 2013-01-20
Packaged: 2017-11-26 05:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/647248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BitterSilence/pseuds/BitterSilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Morgana is riding off to kill the King, Gwaine is dead, and Percival is left to deal with the loss of everything he holds dear and try to contain the devastation as best he can</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the Things We Could've Been

Gwaine's screams echo in Percival's head as he clutches uselessly at the man's jaw, his large hands dwarfing his handsome face. He cradles Gwaine's head as gently as he can and leans forward so their foreheads are touching. Ma had always called him a mother bear - fierce-looking but gentler then anything to those he loved.

Gwaine with his easy smiles and laid-back temperament and confidence is gone now. Life fine from his hazel eyes, now hidden from the world behind thin eyelids. Percival swallows and breathes as best he can around the stone in his throat. He lets out a choking noise like the female eagle who lost her hatchlings in the forest where he grew up. He doesn't even try to stop the tears forming in his eyes because he knows it will be a wasted effort in the end.

He's never said anything to Gwaine because he never believed anything could come of the quiet affection he's harbored for the other night for almost a year. But now with the man he loves lying limp and dead in his arms, he can't help but wish he had taken the chance, because even a week, even a night, would have been better than nothing at all.

His king will die. He does not blame Gwaine. But it leaves him adrift and without purpose, the two things he cared about most taken from him in one fell swoop.

Gwaine's hair smells like pine and sunshine, and all Percival can taste is the death of what could've been.


End file.
